


Dying Rose

by Vagabond_Sunshine



Series: Stories Untold [2]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Domestic Violence, F/M, Mental Abuse, Physical Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-26 10:57:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22574548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vagabond_Sunshine/pseuds/Vagabond_Sunshine
Summary: "You're on edge."Well why wouldn't she be? The Guardian was here, wanting answers to her questions of Dredgen Yor. Who he was before, what it was like to see his transition. But from what she had heard bringing up the past might be triggering for the Hunter who sat before her.**Content Warning:** Chapter three and four deals with gas lighting, mental manipulation, and physical abuse. Please make sure you're in the right head space before reading or please skip those chapters.
Relationships: Dredgen Yor/ Female Guardian (Destiny), Female Guardian/Male Guardian (Destiny), Rezyl Azzir/ Female Guardian (Destiny)
Series: Stories Untold [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1609942
Kudos: 3





	1. Bittersweet Memories

**Author's Note:**

> The Chapters to this story are song titles. The emotions the songs invoke are ones that I feel fit to what Eden and/or Rezyl were feeling. Please feel free to look up the song or the lyrics. 
> 
> Bittersweet Memories is by Bullet for my Valentine

The rising pitch of liquid filling a glass was the only sound the young Guardian heard over the thrum of the blood in her ears. She watched the Hunter that sat across from her fill a second glass before pushing it across the wooden table. The silence was almost suffocating, pregnant with questions that wanted to be asked but couldn’t find the strength to come forward. The Guardian was at a loss for how to begin. 

The Hunter let out a soft sigh after taking a quick swig from her glass, “You’re on edge.”

The Guardian didn’t reply, only nodding as she reached to her holster, pulling out and dropping a jagged hand cannon onto the table. The shuffle of paper was heard as a small stack of letters was set next to the gun with care. The Hunter tilted her head at them, reaching forward to take one of the yellowed papers to read over. The Guardian watched her eyes scan the page, the twing of a smile on her plush lips. 

“He finally told the truth.”

“So… Alex was right? You knew both of them.”

“I knew a lot of people. I even knew you before you died.”

The Guardian’s eyes widened in surprise. “Papa never said anything about you when we discussed my past… I thought… I thought we cleared it all up.”

A soft laugh left the Hunter as she took another sip from her glass. “Apparently not… I don’t think he even knows I exist. You were alone when I found you, far as he knows you survived on your own for two years, if that is what he told you anyway. But… That’s a story for another time.”

She motioned to the gun on the table. “This is why you’re here. This… necessary infection.”

“Necessary?” The Guardian was interested now, leaning forward on the table. 

The Hunter nodded, grey eyes glancing over the gun with disgust and… regret?

“Yor didn’t always depend on the darkness. Didn’t always feed on light like some sort of starving Thrall.”

“He was the Noble Man, Rez--”

The Hunter raised her hand, silencing the Guardian. “Two entirely different people.”

“How did you know him? Father said he’d seen you both together at one point or another before he went on his crusades.”

“Nothing escapes that Titan…”

The Guardian sat expectantly, leaning her arms against the table in anticipation. The Hunter sat back in her chair, head tossed back to down the rest of her cup’s contents. The glass thunked on wood as she hissed with the burn of alcohol in her throat. 

“Rezyl and I,” a sigh. “We had a relationship toward the end of our City age, things turned unpleasant when the  _ other _ entered our lives…”


	2. Be Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Moon is a sirens call and Rezyl just happened to fall for it. After days of waiting for him, Eden waits up one more night to see if maybe, just maybe he comes home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be Together is by Major Lazer feat. Wild Belle (Vanic Remix)

Five days. Down to the hour that Eden stood up all night. Be it at the Wall to keep watch for Fallen or within her own home, simply sitting and waiting in silence. Rezyl had gone to the Moon. That was all she was told by Shaxx anyways. She knew better than to worry about him. 

He was the Noble Man, Rezyl Azzir. The Risen to unite the Guardians during the Faction Wars. But this wasn’t just petty squabbles between civilians and Guardians. No. This was something else entirely. Luna was full of creatures just waiting to descend upon Earth. Creatures enslaved to the Darkness. Eden had seen them. The nightmares and the way they seemed to feed on Light. These… Hive.

It haunted her. That had been the reason she spread rumors of these creatures as scary stories to begin with. As a warning to the Guardians and civilians that there was something  _ other _ out there among the stars. The stories had all gone quiet in recent years, apparently they caused children to wake with night terrors. 

Good. 

The people deserved to know what awaited them outside the safety of the City. Especially now that Hive Seeders had been spotted in the Rusted Lands a few years back. Alien pirates were the least of their worries. 

Maybe that was why Rezyl strayed. Eden had often caught him staring up at the Moon late most nights. She should have known better than to tell him it was her who started the stories. Should have made better attempts to convince him they were only myths. Would it have made a difference? Rezyl often brought up the fact that saving people carried less and less weight to him. The hope he had cherished throughout the years had grown stale as a motivator. He wanted a bigger challenge. 

Remembering this while sitting on the roof of her apartment building, the Hunter let cigarette smoke drift from her lips. It had to be past midnight given the low buzz to the city. Most were asleep, save for those on watch. It was merely white noise to Eden as she flicked the butt of the cigarette away, all while staring up at the Moon. 

“For as much as you would chastise me for sitting up here, look where I find you.”

Eden’s head turned so fast, one would think she snapped her own neck. There, standing in the doorway to the stairwell was Rezyl. The Hunter lept from her spot on the roof’s edge to practically tackle the Titan. He was steady as a mountain when her arms wrapped around his neck and her legs around his waist. 

“You could have told me where you were going,” she hissed between the kisses she peppered over his face. “Told me you were still breathing.”

“I told Vincent to stay back,” Rezyl chuckled setting Eden down only to then hold out a few different flowers to her instead. “But I’m here now.”

She looked from the small bushel to the Titan. It was clear he had been through some sort of hell up there. The gold laced armor had been clawed at, dented and covered in some sort of dark liquid. He looked tired, like he hadn’t slept the entire time he had been gone. Dried blood still lingered around cuts on his face and surprisingly, his ears. Eden gently pushed the hand holding the flowers aside, reaching up to hold the sides of Rezyl’s face. 

“What happened to you up there?”

After a shared shower and meal, the two lie in bed in the apartment. Rezyl recounted all that had happened on the Moon. The massive doors in the Hellmouth and the Witch that ‘invited’ him down to the dark hallowed halls. He described the reason his ears had bled in the first place. How the wicked woman claimed to be the ‘End of Morrows’ and how he would suffer for his trespassing on the sacred ground. 

“The words she used… couldn’t even be described as words, more like clawing on the walls of my mind…”

Eden hung on every sentence, brows knit together with concern as she held tightly to Rezyl’s hand and arm. He went on to describe the chittering, manic horde that attacked him endlessly. Then how there was a lull before a giant, hulking Knight appeared. Apparently he was the Witch’s betrothed. 

“I had never seen anything like it before. It carried a cleaver as big as I am tall and three times as heavy.”

“Did you kill it?” The Hunter’s voice was but a whisper, her form now practically buried in the Titan’s side. 

“Of course,” he smiled briefly sitting up. “I even managed to claim a trophy before I got out.”

At first, Eden was confused, watching Rezyl move to his holster, hung over the back of a desk chair with the rest of his armor. There he pulled out his cannon. The Rose. Her eyes widened upon seeing it. It used to be a simple, polished weapon, well worn and ever trusted in the hands of the Titan. Now it carried jagged pieces of chitin that had been graphed on like some sort of macabre crown. 

Rezyl held it out to the Hunter, for her to hold it. She reached forward to do so, but the moment her hand got close she could feel something. A darkness surrounded this gun now, one that had leapt from it to Eden’s skin making her recoil in disgust. 

She tried to play it off, shaking her head, “That’s your prize. You’re the one who deserves to be its bearer.”

Rezyl raised a brow at the fib, but let it go all the same as he climbed back into bed. Pulling Eden close he sighed, “It feels good to be back…”

“I would hope so,” she smiled tracing her fingers over old scars on his arms and chest. “Is your curiosity satisfied?”

He nodded closing his eyes, just about ready to drift off. “I don’t think I’ll be going back there for a long time.”

“Just warn me before you do,” Eden yawned pulling the blankets up over her shoulder. “Waking up to a cold bed and a single rose is only nice when you come home that same night.”

Both had fallen asleep. The evening for once, was mostly quiet, or perhaps that was just how tired the two of them had been. Regardless, it was peaceful. That was until Rezyl heard something. It was soft to start with, probably Eden just mumbling in her sleep as she had done in the past. Maybe it was even a passerby on the streets outside. Whispers loud enough to be heard but low enough to be ignored. 

Then a loud, shrill scream echoed in the room. Painful, angry and full of malice. 

Rezyl shot upright from a dead sleep, his eyes wide and panicked looking around the dark chamber. Eden sat up quickly beside him. “What is it?” she slurred tiredly, grabbing his shoulder.

“Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” 

“The scream.”

The Hunter shook her head, confused but slowly waking up more and more as she shifted to sit on her knees. Taking Rezyl’s face in her hands again, she kissed his forehead. “You were fighting by Hive for two days, surrounded by them for four, it was probably a nightmare.”

After a moment, the Titan nodded. Drawing a deep breath to calm himself as the pair laid down once more. A nightmare, that had to be it. Just a bad dream from being awake for five days straight. Nothing some sleep couldn’t fix. 

Or at least, it should have.


	3. For my Sake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Content Warning for this Chapter**  
Mental Manipulation/Abuse. Please read this is you are in the right mindset or feel free to skip this chapter. 
> 
> Rezyl has been slipping. Yor is becoming more prominent through out the years and with it comes the fact he's becoming manipulative. Trying to justify his actions by having Eden take the blame. This just happens to be the last time she lets it happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For my Sake is by Shinedown

The whispers Rezyl had heard that night continued on for years. Eventually they had turned to a voice, dark promises of grandeur and spoils to tempt him. Much as Eden tried to prevent it. She knew he was starting to slip. He was no longer himself. His care was long cast away after Mar Ibrium. 

A fact Eden learned the hard way now holding the stinging side of her face, staring at the several bodies that lie on the forest floor. An argument having just passed between the Titan and a group of survivors they had been leading to the City. All she had done was try to stop it. Try to keep the peace if only long enough to get everyone back to safety. 

Rezyl was in front of her next, moving her hand and holding her face, making her look at him. “You should have just left them,” he murmured rubbing his thumb over the welt on her cheek. “If they had any hope of reaching the City they would have followed.”

“You killed them,” she whispered. 

“Because you gave them reason to pause.”

This wasn’t the first time he had said something like that. Putting the blame of an argument or death on her conscience. For a while, she believed him. He made it easy for her, she was stubborn. Communication was hardly her strong suit, sometimes words came out wrong. Sometimes her actions would come at a price. But not this time. This time was different. These deaths, the blood that soaked into the ground was on his hands. 

Slowly, Eden stood taking a deep, shuddering breath. She wasn’t going to take this anymore. Whatever madness had taken hold of her lover was too much to handle. She looked at Rezyl, finding a single rose held out in his hand. Where did he even find that? It didn’t matter. This being another action he would do, trying to apologize. If one could call it that. 

She could already hear his voice, telling her he forgave her and that there was always another chance to make it right. But there wouldn’t be, it would just end up being the exact same situation all over again. Eden knew this too well and was tired of it. 

The palm of her hand now stung as the flower fell to the ground, petals gaining a dark crimson with the blood they soaked in. The echo of the slap still rang in the air. “No more,” she growled turning on her heel and starting to walk away.

She hadn’t made it very far, Rezyl grabbing her wrist, forcing her to look at him. 

“Let go!” she shouted trying to yank her arm away only to yelp at the crushing grip he held her in. She used her other hand to beat against his chest. “We’re done, Rezyl!”

He let her go at that. Staring blankly at the Hunter who now held her arm close to herself. Eden dared to step closer. “Ever since you came back from the Moon it’s like you’re a completely different person. It doesn’t matter whose life you take so long as you’re the one to claim it. That is not how we are supposed to be!”

“And just what are we supposed to be, my love?”

Eden wanted to crawl out of her skin at the tone Rezyl had used. Sweet and caring but only enough to disguise the twisting madness that boiled beneath. Gritting her teeth she narrowed her eyes, “We are supposed to be the good guys. The ones to save people!” She pointed haphazardly to the corpse of a small child, face down in the dirt. “Not do this to them! That makes us no better than the creatures who have done the same for hundreds of years!”

Rezyl only smiled. Leaves crunched under his boots as he stepped closer. Eden stepped back, her shoulder bumping into a tree as the Titan loomed over her. “Have you ever considered that this is what ‘good’ looks like. Maybe what I have been doing has been the same since Vincent brought me back.”

“Like hell,” she seethed shoving her hands against his armor in an attempt to get him to back off. “Vincent saw promise in you like Lycan did for me. That’s what Ghosts do.”

“Is that what you think?”

Eden had taken off after that. A quick sprint to make it to a clearing before calling upon her sparrow to carry her away. Though her heart was heavy, what more could she do? The man she was leaving behind wasn’t Rezyl. Not anymore. He was something else. Something  _ other _ . 


	4. The Crimson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Content Warning for this Chapter**  
Physical abuse. Please read only if you are in the right head space or feel free to skip this chapter
> 
> Crucible is great stress relief for Guardians. Eden just happened to be in the match with Thalor and Pahanin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Crimson is by Atreyu. For this song I highly recommend looking up the lyrics as it can be a little hard to understand. (Lots of screaming vocals).

Thalor had just been laughing. Had a lightness to him as he took down Guardian after Guardian in another Crucible match. It was like any other day. Eden had barely jumped onto his back to try and take the Titan down. He threw her to the ground like she weighed nothing. 

“Not this time,” he chuckled, leveling his gun to her helm. 

She closed her eyes, ready for the consequence of her judgement. But nothing happened. Curious she looked back up to Thalor who now had his gun aimed at another Guardian somewhere behind her. 

“Never seen you before,” the Titan muttered before squeezing the trigger. 

Eden followed the bullet as it struck the shoulder of a… Hunter? Dark armor covered their large, imposing form looking pieced together after years of damage. A tattered cloak billowed on the wind behind them, making them look like some sort of jagged living shadow. They hadn’t even flinched as they raised their… was that… The Rose? 

Confusion reigned over Eden before she heard the shot that was fired next. A hollow ringing accompanying a blast that made her blood run cold. She looked desperately at Thalor. His hand had come up to his chest where a metal stake like round sat. A sickly green glow ebbed from the bullet, seeping into the cracks of his armor that it had created. 

Thalor dropped to his knees the next moment, leaning forward on one of his hands as he looked to the other. Vaguely, Eden could see the way his light was fading, like something was draining it away. His ghost materialized after a few seconds, falling to the ground with a hollow thud. There was no sign of life to the little Light, made painfully clear as another round from the Rose pierced its shell. 

The sound Thalor had made was one Eden prayed never to hear again. She turned looking at this stranger who stepped forward. No words left their helm. Only another shot from their gun as Eden heard the Titan behind her drop to the floor. She swallowed hard, pushing herself back as that same gun was turned on her. 

“Do you hear them?” the shadow spoke darkly, almost in a growl while moving closer. “The bones…”

The Hunter was stuck, staring down the barrel of the gun she thought she’d seen the last of. Her heart hammered against her ribs, like a panicked bird cornered by a predator. That was how she felt at least. She could see the hammer on the weapon cock back, the dark details of a bullet shifting into place. 

“What the hell?!” 

Eden ducked at the last moment, the bullet stuck in the wall just next to her head. The breath she didn’t realize she held came out in a choked sob as she looked up seeing another Hunter. Smaller than the man before her, this was Pahanin. She vaguely remembered the name as one who had been with the fireteam that went to the Vault of Glass. From what she knew, he was the only one to make it out alive. 

“What did you do?” Pahanin asked, kneeling next to Thalor’s body. He shook the Titan, trying to wake him. There came no response. The Hunter barely looked up before another hollow ring cried out in the air. A single spike sat in the center of Pahanin’s helm as he fell back.

His ghost appeared the next second, apparently not affected by the bullets as Thalor’s ghost had been. But it didn’t matter. The moment the little Light was in reality a single round shot it out of the air, pinning it to the stone floor. 

“Still hungry,” the shadow growled looking at Eden once more. 

She dug the heels of her boots into the ground, scooting back further into the wall behind her. It would do no good. “You’re a monster,” she hissed, voice wavering out of fear. 

The shadow paused, lowering his weapon to kneel in front of the Hunter. “You didn’t always think so.”

Eden’s eyes would have widened had she not snapped them shut when he reached for her. She heard the sound of the airlock on her helm hiss before the armor was removed. After all this time, the years spent apart, did she dare to look at him? 

Darkness caressed her cheek. Revulsion ebbed from the point of contact, causing the Hunter to turn her head out of disgust. 

“Why won’t you look at me, my love?”

There they were again, intentionally forgotten words of adoration, tainted with growing malice. 

“You… You aren’t yourself.”

“You’re right,” the shadow chuckled. “I’m so much more now if only you would just look at me...”

Eden refused the temptation to even turn her head or she would have. There was a sigh of frustration a hand grabbing her lower jaw, roughly forcing her to face forward. 

“Open your eyes. Look. At. Me.”

And she did only seeing the same dark armor sitting before her. Moving her gaze upward, Eden fought the gasp in her throat. This wasn’t the man she used to know. The same sickly green from his weapon bled into his eyes. The once ocean blue irises almost seemed to glow with tainted Light. He had more scars, gashes that were just now starting to heal barely visible in the shadows cast by his much longer hair and the hood he wore. 

“Was that so hard?” 

“Rezyl…” she whispered only to receive a harsh back hand. 

Her hand shot up to hold the stinging flesh of her cheek, but he was a step ahead of her, grabbing her wrist tightly and holding it above her head. “That.” he snarled. “Is no longer my name.”

She felt so small now. Literally trying to merge into the wall behind her to escape this situation. The feeling of the shadow he cast consuming her had her entire body shaking again. Swallowing the lump in her throat, Eden found her voice, “What is your name then?”

That brought his smile back. Almost as if he had been waiting for her to ask, gently he let her arm go bringing his his own hand to the front of his chest piece. “The sole forebearer and last descendant of my family. All that is right in this world, please, my love, call me Dredgen Yor.”

“The eternal abyss?” 

“You remember the forgotten languages…”

“Eden…?” 

Rezyl snapped his attention to the male voice. Another Titan stood there just behind the bodies of Thalor and Pahanin. A snarl left Rezyl as rose to his feet, bringing his cursed weapon up. It felt like years had gone by in a single second. Eden watched the Titan take aim at Rezyl, the once Nobel Man doing the same. She knew what was going to happen. But it couldn’t. 

No. Not to this Titan. 

“Anyone but him!” the Hunter screamed throwing herself into Rezyl’s side, scratching and clawing for the gun. 

That set him off. He elbowed her under her chin, sending Eden stumbling back into the wall. The hollow ring of Thorn screamed in the air, followed only by silence.


	5. Survive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back to the present, Eden finishes telling the Guardian her story. To which the Guardian asks a few more questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Survive is by Rise Against

The Hunter held a cigarette between her lips, snapping her fingers to produce a small flame on her thumb to light the cancer stick. She then held the half empty pack to the Guardian who shook her head in reply. 

“Smart,” Eden smirked leaning back in her seat.

“So what happened after that? To you and Yor? Did you ever see him again? And who was that Titan?”

“Slow down, Kebe,” Eden laughed softly. “Saint really wasn’t kidding when he said you have to know the little details.”

Kebechet only shrugged, “I like to have a complete picture.”

“I like to think Rezyl was still somewhere inside that thick skull of his. Shot me in the shoulder,” she shifted, undoing her under armor just enough to reveal a dark cross shaped scar to the far upper left of her chest. “It’s all a haze after that.”

"Bastard took off after I made him taste solar fire,” a male voice called from the doorway to the kitchen. 

“Kori?” Kebechet asked turning her attention to the human.

“I was that Titan. Didn’t know what happened before I got there, only that I saw red when he shot her.”

“I thought you were a Striker.”

"Like you don’t switch elements every week,” Kori scoffed coming up from behind to wrap his arms around Eden. “A hammer is just as good as a fist when I get running.”

“I won’t argue with you there,” Kebcehet smiled. 

“To answer your question,” the Hunter cleared her throat, tapping her cigarette on the lip of an ashtray. “I only saw Yor once after that. When I lead Shin to Dwindler’s Ridge with Vincent.”

“So that’s where you went,” Kori murmured kissing the top of her head. 

“All these years and you never figured it out?” 

Laughs filled the room, lifting the somber mood that once hung in the hair. Kebechet hummed in thought, “You said Thorn’s infection was necessary, why?”

“If Rezyl didn’t go to the moon we wouldn’t be sitting here right now. The Hive might have attacked us before we ever had a thought to go to them. We wouldn’t have Shin, or a chance to cleanse this weapon,” Eden picked up the Thorn from the table, “so that it would never take another Guardian’s light again.”

“You never would have met Kori,” Kebechet finished resting her chin on her hand, supported by her elbow on the table. “Or Alex.”

“Exactly,” Eden smiled setting the gun aside, shuddering at the feeling it still gave her. “I had good times with him when he was Rezyl. Terrible times when Yor would take over, and that’s not an excuse. It’s how things played out in the end. Did he deserve the suffering he got? Yes and no. He was broken… Lost to something none of us understood at the time, but he still gave into it. And that’s something I’ll never forgive.”

“But he led you to me,” Kori offered placing his over her heart. 

“Of course,” she replied looking up at him, placing her hand over his. “And I don’t know about you but my life’s been all the better for it.”

“Speaking of better,” Kebechet tapped her hands around her person, reaching behind herself now. “That isn’t the real Thorn. Shin led me to it, and this,” she pulled out a beautiful, ornate hand cannon. 

White petal-like metal swirled in seemingly random patterns around the weapon. Golden thorns peeked out of the gaps on the barrel. Even from this distance Eden could feel the light flowing off it in small waves. She reached forward, taking the canon as it was handed to her. 

“The Rose,” she whispered, seeing the familiar frame under the decor, a single tear slipping down her cheek. “Kebe… How did you--?”

“A lot of hard work and cleansing, everyone calls it Lumina.” The younger Hunter then sighed, “You’re right, Rezyl and Yor were two different people that just happened to share a body. Yor made Thorn. I think if things had turned out differently, Rezyl would have made this. Kinda fitting it came from the same gun.”

Eden nodded leaning into Kori, who knelt at her side. “It’s beautiful,” the words were strained and choked as she wiped her nose on the back of her sleeve. Sniffling and running her hand over the weapon with care. 

“Keep it,” Kebechet smiled, pushing the gun back to Eden when the older Hunter tried to hand it back. “Yor was a dick head, but from your story, Rezyl wasn’t. If nothing else at least remember him that way. If… that’s okay with you, Kori.”

The Titan was in thought for a moment. This was his wife’s ex after all. After a beat or two he nodded, “Kebe’s right,  _ Luna _ . I didn’t know him the way you did, if this can help you heal some more, who am I to stop you?”

“ _ Sol _ …” Eden laughed, wiping her eyes. “You’re my husband whose opinion I care about.”

“I don’t have a problem with it, Eden. Who knows, maybe in another life, the Noble Man and the Kingslayer could have been brothers.”


End file.
